How to See the British Museum in Four Visits Part 6

Something of the effect may be comprehended from the two large red granite lions which mark the southern boundary of the saloon (1-34.) They are of the time of the third Amenophis, and were discovered at Mount Barkal by Lord Prudhoe, in 1829. As specimens of the mechanical skill of ancient Egyptian sculptors, they are worth particular remark.

Here there is little of that angular stiffness characteristic of the statues the visitor has already examined. And now, making one more progress through the saloon, the visitor may rapidly notice the varieties of strange animal forms--all of which, in ancient Egypt, had their religious meaning. They were, at all events, symbols of divine instincts, and for this reason a deep interest rises in the modern mind in the contemplation of their proportions and expression. The figure numbered 7 is a colossal head of a ram, emblematic of Amen-ra; that numbered 8, is Hapi, the G.o.d of the Nile of the period of the 22nd dynasty, with allegorical waterfowl and plants hanging from the altar he is holding; two strange figures of gryphons, or hawk-headed sphinxes, found by Belzoni in the great temple of Ibsamboul (11-13), and emblematic or Munt-ra, will next engage the visitor's attention; and from these specimens the visitor should turn to a black granite fragment of the Egyptian Diana--Pasht, of the time of Amenophis; but as he will have an opportunity of observing more finished representations of this popular divinity, he may at once pause before a second statue of this G.o.ddess, also of the time of the third Amenophis (37), where Pasht is represented in black granite, upon a throne, with the head of a lion, and in her hand the emblem of life.

Hereabouts, also, are two specimens of the strange cynocephalus, or dog-headed baboon (38-40), sacred to the Hercules and Mercury of the Egyptian Pantheon. The figures marked 41-45 are two more specimens of Pasht, who appears to have been the most popular subject for the Egyptian sculptor's chisel; these are erect figures, holding lotus sceptres, and are both from Karnak. The figures marked 49, 50, 52, 53, 57, are all representations of the popular Pasht; in 52 she wears the disk of the sun. And now the visitor may well pause before a fragment marked 58. This is a piece of the beard of the Great Sphinx. Peeping above the sands which surround the famous pyramids of Gizeh, is the upper part of a man-headed sphinx. This sphinx is said to measure no less than 62 feet in height, and 143 feet in length; this Colossus has been plucked by the beard, and the result lies before the visitor.

Hereabouts, in pa.s.sing, the visitor may glance at another object wrested from the hands of the French (59). It is a fragment of a column in porphyry, supporting a colossal areonite hawk, sacred to the sun. More statues of Pasht! (60, 62, 63, of the 22nd dynasty; 65, 68, 69). A column found in a house at Cairo, the capital of which is formed in the shape of a lotus flower (64), deserves notice; also (70), the basalt statue of a G.o.d, conjectured to be Amen-ra, holding a small figure of a monarch of the 28th dynasty. More statues of Pasht (71, 2, 3, 6, 7, 9; 80, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9); and then the visitor may pause before the colossal scarabaeus, emblematic of the world and creation (74); and a broken sphinx, of Roman work (82). Not far off are deposited the legs of Truth (91), the G.o.ddess Ma of the Egyptians; some altars from Aboukir and Sais, that marked 135, from the Temple of Berenice, having steps leading to it; entrances to tombs (157), ornamented with figures; and more statues of Pasht, amongst them a colossal bust from a statue (521).

Having noticed these specimens, the visitor should pa.s.s into the lobby at the northern end of the saloon, to notice the two small obelisks placed here, brought from Cairo; they stood before a temple to Thoth.

The hieroglyphics upon them are carefully executed, but these specimens give the spectator no idea of the colossal obelisks of ancient Egypt, of which that of Alexandria, 63 feet high, is a fair specimen. These obelisks were generally in pairs, and were placed on each side of the great entrance to Egyptian temples. Having returned to the saloon, the visitor should, before finally pa.s.sing from it, notice the famous tablet of Abydos (117), found by Mr. Banks, in 1818, in the Temple of Abydos. It is the work of the great Sesostris, and the inscription on it is a record of his predecessors in the kingly office: hence it has been long an attractive object to chronologists.

Also, before glancing at the few paintings, and closing the examination of this interesting saloon, the visitor should inspect the Rosetta stone (24), inscribed in three characters (of which one is Greek), by order of the high priests, recording the services of the fifth Ptolemy. And now, with a glance at the

EGYPTIAN FRESCOES,

the visitor should rapidly close his survey of this chamber. These are rude performances enough, and, as the visitor will see, bear a close resemblance to those we introduced to him in the Egyptian rooms up stairs. Mr. Long, while on the subject of Egyptian art, thus mentions their paintings:--"Sculpture and painting were closely allied, both among the Egyptians and in the old schools of Greece; and both arts were intimately a.s.sociated with architecture. Sculptured and coloured figures formed in ancient Egyptian edifices the decoration and the finish of the larger ma.s.ses of the architecture which served as a framework within which they were placed. The edifices, from their ma.s.sy forms and the magnitude of their component parts, were well calculated to produce a general impression of grandeur; and this was not destroyed by the smaller decorated parts, which were always strictly subordinate to the general design, and were not, like it, comprehended at a glance, but required to be studied in detail.

"Painting, in the proper sense of the term, that of the representations of objects by colours on the flat surface, appears to be an art of less antiquity than that of sculpture. The Egyptians probably first coloured their reliefs and statues before they attempted to represent objects with colours on a flat ground. But, however this may be, paint was most extensively used by them, not only in making pictures, properly so called, but in painting the surfaces of tablets and temples, as well as colossal statues and sculptured figures of all kinds and sizes. Indeed, an Egyptian temple, in its complete state, bedizened with so many bright unmixed colours, must have been rather a curious object, and would hardly, perhaps, have pleased the taste of modern times; though, it must be admitted, that the effect of these colours under a brilliant sun would be very different from their appearance in such a climate as this. The pureness, permanence, and brilliancy of Egyptian colouring are the only qualities that we can admire; for they never, apparently, compounded colours so as to produce a greater variety from the simple colours. It has also been frequently remarked that they did not soften them off so as to form various degrees of intensity, or to make any attempt at contrasts of light and shade. This is probably true as to the representation of human figures, which are coloured pretty much in the same style that a child paints uncoloured engravings, making one part all red, another all blue, and so on, without any softening of the colours at their common boundary. But in the representation of animals, as we shall afterwards observe, more care was taken in softening and blenching the colours, so as to produce a better representation of nature.

"The colours used in the painted relief, and on the stuccoes are black, blue, red, green, and yellow; these are always kept distinct and never blended. Of blue, they used both a darker and a lighter shade. Red was used to represent the human flesh, apparently from its being nearer the natural tint than any other simple colour; but many of their colours were evidently applied with a conventional meaning, for the representation of different races. The conquered people represented in the great temple of Abonsambel, or Ipsambul, have yellow bodies and black beards. In the grottoes of El Cab, the men are red, and the women yellow. Black men also sometimes appear in the paintings. The five colours above enumerated seldom occur all in one piece or picture; but in this matter there is perhaps no general rule.

The Nubian temples have often a very rich colouring, as in the case of one at Kalapsche, where yellow, green, red, and blue, have all been used in painting the reliefs in one of the inner chambers; and in some single figures in this temple we may observe all these four colours.

"The materials of which the colours were made would no doubt change with the improvements in the arts; and after the Macedonian occupation of the country, new colours, both vegetable and mineral, may have been introduced. But the tombs of the kings at Thebes may undoubtedly be considered as containing specimens of ancient Egyptian colouring, as well as the painted reliefs in the oldest temples, and the colourings about the ancient mummies. By a careful examination of these specimens, we may attain a very adequate knowledge of the materials used, and of the mode of applying them." The first of these frescoes (169-170-1) are from the walls of a tomb of the western Hills of Thebes. The tomb is that of a scribe of the royal granaries and wardrobe, and the pictures represent the inspection of oxen by scribes, a scribe standing in a boat, the registration of the delivering of ducks and geese and their eggs. The fragment marked 175 represents an entertainment, with female instrumental performers; here (176) an old man is leaning upon a staff near a cornfield; there (177) is the square fish-pond woefully deficient in prospective; there is a second entertainment (179), where the wine is freely circulating; dancing is going on to music--the picture of a social evening enjoyed thousands of years ago; and here, at a third entertainment (181), servants are bringing in wine and necklaces--a kind of hospitality to which, as regards the latter object, modern ladies would in no way object. The ancient Egyptian ladies had their bouquets, their ornaments, and their couches, and exacted a plainness of costume from their servants, as in the present time. On pa.s.sing south from the Egyptian Saloon, between the two great lions, the visitor at once gains the central saloon, but without pausing here, or turning to the right into the tempting Phigalian and Elgin Saloons, he should proceed rapidly on his way to the south-western extremity of the building, at which point he will find himself at the entrance to the

LYCIAN ROOM.

In a few preliminary words we may indicate the points of Lycian history. Situated in Asia Minor, Lycia is said to have taken its name from the Athenian prince Lycus, who conquered it, and laid it open to his countrymen. This Greek period of its history was interrupted by Cyrus, who added it to the Persian empire about five centuries and a half before our era; it was only regained about two centuries after by Alexander the Great. It subsequently became a Roman province, then yielded to the Byzantine empire, and now owns the rule of the Turk.

This eventful history gives an interest to the country that has excited the curiosity of the learned for ages. The period of its greatest prosperity ensued upon its being reconquered by Alexander, when it included no less than seventy cities, of which Xanthus was the capital. Of all these cities, only scattered ruins under Turkish villages now remain. Of Lycian remains it may be said nothing was known before Sir Charles Fellows started on his exploring expedition in 1838. One or two travellers had made some scattered observations with regard to the sites of ancient Lycian towns before that time, and their hints first drew the attention of the learned in this direction; but, we repeat, it cannot be said that anything was known of Lycian remains before Sir Charles pressed the soil of Asia Minor, and looked about for the sites of some of the seventy towns mentioned in ancient history. He succeeding in fixing the sites of many of the cities, including Xanthus, and on his return to England prevailed upon the government to send out vessels to bring home the remains he saw scattered about the rocky site of the ancient Lycian metropolis.

Messrs. Spratt and Forbes subsequently added eighteen sites of towns to the list made by Sir Charles. The collection of sculpture now popularly known as the Xanthian marbles, are a few ruins gleaned from the rocky eminence which is the site of ancient Xanthus. These fragmentary remains of an ancient people consist chiefly of sculptures from their temples and their tombs; upon which, like the Egyptians, they appear to have expended a vast amount of labour, and to have employed their greatest artists. The Greek mind is clearly traceable in these Xanthian marbles,--the Greek imbued with local traditions and feelings. The first object that will attract the visitor's attention on entering the room, is the most remarkable of

LYCIAN TOMBS,

called the Harpy Tomb. This tomb, which occupied the highest point of the hill on which Xanthus stood, is described by Sir Charles Fellows in his account of the Xanthian marbles, published in 1843. The tomb was a square shaft, in one solid block, weighing no less than eighty tons. "Its height," says Sir Charles, "was seventeen feet, placed upon a base, rising on one side six feet from the ground, on the other but little above the present level of the earth. Around the sides of the top of the shaft were ranged bas-reliefs in white marble, about three feet three inches high; upon these rested a capstone, apparently a series of stones, one projecting over the other; but these are cut in one block, probably fifteen or twenty tons in weight. Within the top of the shaft was hollowed out a chamber, which, with the bas-relief sides, was seven feet six inches high, and seven feet square. This singular chamber had probably been, in the early ages of Christianity, the cell of an anchorite, perhaps a disciple of Simeon Stylites, whose name was derived from his habitation, which, I believe, we have generally translated as meaning a column, but which was more probably a _stele_ like this. The traces of the religious paintings and monograms of this holy man still remain upon the backs of the marble of the bas-reliefs." By reference to the model of the tomb, of which the bas-reliefs are in the room (1), the visitor may verify the remarks of Sir Charles, who goes on to say that the monument was never finished, having been only half polished, and that it bears the traces of a shake from an earthquake. The general conjecture is that the tomb is the labour of a Lycian Greek sculptor. The subjects of the bas-reliefs have been variously interpreted: they decorated, as the visitor will perceive by reference to the model, the four sides of a square shaft. First, let the visitor turn to the western face, marked (B). Here the scene represented is supposed to be Juno holding a cup before the sacred cow Io, and Epaphus, Aphrodite, and the three Charites, which have been interpreted also as the three Seasons, and the Erinnyes or Furies. The eastern side marked (A), is supposed to represent Tantalus, bringing the golden dog stolen from Crete to Pandarus in Lycia: Neptune seated, with a man leaning on a crutch, and a boy offering a bird before him, and Amymone and Amphitrite behind him; and AEsculapius seated with Telesphorus in front, and two of the Graces behind him. The northern side (C), shows at the corners, two Harpies making off with two of the daughters of Pandarus, while their sister Aedon, on her knees, is deploring their abduction. Here, too, is a G.o.d seated, conjectured to be Pluto, holding a helmet with the help of another figure, and having a wild animal under his chair. The south side (D), discloses two Harpies bearing off the daughters of Pandarus; and in the centre is a G.o.d, to whom a female figure is offering a dove. By the side of these bas-reliefs, the visitor cannot fail to remark the tomb of a Satrap of Lycia from Xanthus. From the fact of horses being clearly traceable among the figures sculptured upon this interesting relic, Sir Charles Fellows christened it the Horse Tomb, and by this appellation it is popularly known. Its strange shape, with its highly decorated roof and plain base, makes it an object of curiosity to most visitors. It appears to be of the time of the Persian dominion in Lycia, and was, as two inscriptions record, erected by the satrap Paiafa. Upon the roof are groups of fighting warriors, and at each side are figures in chariots and four. Sphinxes occur in the lower sculptures, and on the north side below, is a mixed combat of foot and horse soldiers; and the Satrap Paiafa himself, attended by four figures, is here represented. The roof is drained by water-spouts in the shape of lion's heads. The visitor, having now examined the two most remarkable remains of Lycian tombs in the room, should rapidly notice the fragments of sepulchres placed here and there, but legibly numbered. First, let him remark (17-21), a frieze conjectured to be from a tomb found inserted in the wall of the Acropolis of Xanthus. Here he will find in bas-relief a procession consisting of a horse and horseman, priest and priestesses with wands, an armed female figure, and two chariots, with youthful charioteers and old men. A triangular fragment of a tomb will next occupy his attention (23); this has distinct vestiges of colour, and represents a male and female figure separated by an Ionic column, surmounted by an harpy, and other fragments in the immediate neighbourhood; (24-27) have representations of the Sphinx, with a woman's head, wings, and the body of a lion, as the daughter of the Chimaera, from the Xanthian Acropolis. A curious relic is the _Soros_, discovered placed on the top of one of the Xanthian pillar tombs. Here, amongst the bas-reliefs, the visitor will notice a man stabbing an erect lion; a lion playing with its young; and a figure on horseback followed by a pedestrian; and on the next fragment (32), a lioness is again represented fondling her progeny. The roof of a tomb (143), closely resembling that which covers the Horse Tomb, is worth observing. It is part of the tomb of an individual named Merewe, from Xanthus, and the scenes represented include that of an entertainment, divinities, and sphinxes, warlike encounters, and on the sides Bellerophon attacking the Chimaera. Those casts marked (145-149), may next engage the visitor's attention. They were taken from a tomb carved in solid rock at Pinara, and include the frieze, upon which warriors are carved leading captives, the walls representing a walled city, and the Gorgons' heads which decorated the extremities of the dentals. The three next casts that demand particular remark (150-152), were taken from the decorations of a rock tomb at Cadyanda. To the learned these groups are particularly interesting, because the figures are accompanied with inscriptions in the Greek, as well as the pure Lycian language. The first cast is that from the panel of the tomb door, upon which Talas is represented standing: the second represents a group of females; and the third an ancient entertainment with figures reclining on couches with children; a figure playing the double flute, and to the right a nude figure called Hecatomnas. Six casts from tombs hereabouts (153-6), exhibit inscriptions, two of which are in two languages--the Lycian and the Greek, declaring that the owners have built the tombs for themselves and their relations; the second marked 156, in the Lycian language, expresses a threat that a fine will be imposed on any person who may violate the tomb. Bellerophon, riding on Pegasus, may be remarked launching his dart at the Chimaera, upon the cast (158); nymphs are dancing upon the gable end marked (160); and upon that marked (161), which is a cast from the gable end of a tomb discovered at Xanthus, near the Chimaera tomb, two lions are represented devouring a bull. The casts of the sculptures which decorate an ancient rock tomb at Myra, are interesting. Here a young man, attended by a boy, is offering a flower to a veiled woman, attended by two women; in another part a boy attends with wine upon a figure, conjectured to be that of Pluto, and a veiled female form, supposed to be either Proserpine or Venus, is draped by an attendant, in the vicinity of a nude youth. The remains of sarcophagi are marked (168-171). The first of these are the relics of a Roman sarcophagus, discovered in a mausoleum, containing three other sarcophagi, at Xanthus. On the top have been reclining figures of a male and female, and at the sides combats of warriors. The next relic is a fragment of a sarcophagus, amongst the ornaments of which boys are shown at play; and the third fragment discovers the lower part of the representation of a hunt. An exceedingly explicit inscription is that marked (176,) and found at Uslann, near the mouth of the Xanthus, which informs modern generations that some two thousand years ago, Aurelius Jason, son of Alaimis, and Chrysion, daughter of Eleutherus, purchased a tomb for themselves, in the thirteenth month Artemisios, during the priesthood of Callistratus, and dwelling upon this piece of information, which is striking as a voice from the tomb of unknown people speaking to us of the present century, not from any remarkable deed achieved by Aurelius Jason, but simply because his name occurs upon his tomb, plainly written in his own language. A strange immortality! Having examined these relics of the ancient tombs of Lycia, the visitor should take a general glance at

LYCIAN SCULPTURE.

The time during which the Lycians may be said to have enjoyed their highest civilisation dates from about five centuries before our era, up to the period of the Byzantine empire. During this long interval, most of the monuments of which this room contains some remarkable specimens were conceived and executed. Of the sculpture, not immediately ill.u.s.trative of tombs, in the Lycian room, the most interesting, undoubtedly, is that gleaned from the site of an ancient building on the Acropolis of ancient Xanthus, by Sir Charles Fellows.

Pa.s.sing a few fragments, including that marked (33), from Xanthus, which represents the foreparts of two lions issuing from a square block, the visitor should pa.s.s at once to the model of a Xanthian Ionic peristyle building, surrounded by fourteen columns and ornamented with statues, made under the direction of Sir Charles Fellows, from the remains found on the site of the original building, which lie about the room, and which the visitor is about to examine.

The original building was thirty-five feet in height, measuring from the pediment to the base. Its object has been variously stated, but cannot be said to be clearly and satisfactorily known. Of the conjectures which have obtained certain credit, we may mention that which described it as a trophy raised, in 476 B.C., to celebrate the subjugation of Lycia by the Persians; and that which describes the subject of the decorative sculptures as that of the suppression of the revolt of the Cilicians by the Persian Satrap of Lycia. The remains of this mysterious building are ranged in groups about the room; and the visitor will observe indications of the flow of the lines, and the artistic grace, which subsequently marked Grecian sculpture from every other on the face of the earth. Here it is not impossible to recognise the Greek mind: far below that of the decoration of the Parthenon, it is true; but yet elegant and thoughtful. The groups of sculpture marked (34-49) are the sculptures of the broader frieze which, it is conjectured, surrounded the base of the building. Here are represented a series of warlike encounters in which the Greek arms are prominent--their helmets, crests, and Argolic bucklers; while other soldiers are represented nearly nude, and in some instances wearing the Asiatic pointed cap. This frieze undoubtedly represents the Greeks at war with Asiatic tribes. The fragments of the narrow frieze which bordered the upper part of the frieze are marked from 50 to 68. The first four fragments represent the attack of a town, supposed to be the Lycian town Xanthus. Here the besiegers may be observed scaling the wall, and the officers cheering on the men. The five following fragments represent various scenes of warfare between Greeks and Asiatics. Then a walled city is represented, with the heads of a besieged party looking over the ramparts; then a figure of a Satrap occurs (62), supposed to be that of the Persian conqueror of Lycia, Harpagus, who is screened with an umbrella held by a slave, which is the emblem of his sovereignty, and is in the act of receiving a deputation from the besieged city. The next two fragments represent a sally from the besieged town; and upon the 67th fragment is some carving supposed to ill.u.s.trate the retreat of the besieged to their city. The groups marked (69,70,74) are fragments of the capping-stones of the east front of the base, and columns and fragments of columns from the peristyle. Those groups, however, marked (75-84), which consist of the statues originally placed in the intercolumniations of the building, are figures of divinities, with various symbols at their feet, as the dolphin, the halcyon, &c., and are meant to represent, by the flow of the drapery, that they are flying through the air. They have been variously interpreted, but never satisfactorily; some authorities a.s.serting that they were meant to celebrate the arrival of Latona at Xanthus, and others that they symbolise the great naval victory over Evagoras. Pa.s.sing over one or two unimportant groups of fragments, the visitor should next examine the remains of the narrow frieze (95-109), upon which an entertainment is represented--the guests, perfectly used to luxuries, reclining upon couches, and taking wine to the strains of female musicians; also, a sacrifice of various animals. Pa.s.sing the coffers of the ceiling (106-109), the visitor should next examine the remains of another narrow frieze, where a Satrap is represented receiving presents; and bear and boar hunting scenes occur. The fragment marked (125) is the eastern pediment, sculptured in relief with various figures; and that marked (126) is half of the western pediment sculptured with figures of six foot-soldiers. The groups numbered (132-135) are fine specimens of Lycian sculpture: on the first a draped female figure is shown in rapid flight; and on the second, youths are shown bearing off women.

The group marked (138) is one of the samples of the roof-tiles with which the building was covered in. Two crouching lions (139, 140), supposed to have occupied intercolumnar s.p.a.ce in the building, are the last of the fragments. These fragments, however, together with Sir Charles's interesting model, and the landscape (also in the room), realise more vividly to the mind of the general spectator the ancient Xanthus, than all the other detached and solitary fragments. Near the two lions just mentioned are the paws of another lion, and a fragment, found near the Harpy Tomb, of a crouching warrior and bull. Having noticed these, the visitor may occupy himself for a few minutes with the fragments of Byzantine architecture (177-183). These remains were discovered amidst the ruins of a Christian village; and, it is conjectured, were buried by an earthquake. These objects being discussed, the visitor should repair to the gla.s.s case at the end of the room, and examine some small curiosities from the Xanthian Acropolis, which are placed therein. These consist chiefly of a Parian-marble torso of a Venus; the left elbow of a female, and the left side of a female head, in Parian marble, found built into the walls of the Acropolis; leaden and iron cramps found in the oldest sculptures of the Acropolis; four small lamps; vases; a cup; fragments of gla.s.s vessels; fragment of a vase of the Byzantine period, stamped with a cross; bronze vessels; lead grating for a drain pipe; a fragment of a terra cotta amphora, inscribed, in the Doric dialect, with the name of Hippocrates; fragments of painted cement from early Christian buildings--all found in the excavations made for the ruins of the building of which the model and fragments have lately been noticed. Some sickles, a leaden weight, fragments of gla.s.s windows, and terra cotta fragments, also included in the gla.s.s-case, were discovered among the ruins of the houses, buried by the fall of the great building. And in this case, also, are some curiosities from Pinara, including fragments of human bones, tiles, and cement, all amalgamated by a deposit of lime filtering through the rock of a tomb; cement used to line a water cistern, and to block up the door of a rock-tomb. With an examination of these relics, the visitor will close his inspection of the Lycian remains, and proceed at once to the

a.s.sYRIAN REMAINS.

Having examined the monumental remains of the Egyptians and the ancient inhabitants of Persia, the visitor, in order to complete a general impression of the sculptures of remote antiquity, should now direct his attention to the remains recently discovered on the site of ancient Nineveh and Nimroud. Most readers have read something of the history of a.s.syria, of the effeminate Sardanapalus, of Semiramis, and of the more fabulous Ninus. These three names are the three landmarks of a.s.syrian history; and the long lapses of time which separate them are shrouded in mystery, and up to late years have been filled up only by fanciful histories but slenderly based on fact. Men have written confidently on the fall of the a.s.syrian empire, and of its invasion by the Medes; but the discrepancies of rival authorities, who differ as much as ten centuries in their dates according to Mr. Layard, show how insufficient were the materials upon which they pretended to found histories. Where was the site of Babylon? where that of the renowned Nineveh? These questions were often mooted by antiquaries. Mounds of earth were long observed by travellers in a.s.syria and Babylonia; and one of these, which was formed by a ma.s.s of ruined brickwork, was heralded to the world as the remains of the tower of Babel! But the ruins of the great a.s.syrian capital were for a long time un.o.bserved.

For many years had travellers to modern Mosul looked with wondering eyes at gigantic mounds of earth that lay opposite the city. The first traveller who did more than take a cursory view of these mysterious hillocks was Mr. Rich, who, on his way from Kurdistan to Baghdad in 1820, crossed the river, and arrived at the mounds; visited what the inhabitants a.s.serted to be Jonah's tomb on the summit of one of them; saw inscribed relics in the houses of the adjacent village. Among the fragments on the largest mound he picked up some bricks with cuneiform[8] characters upon them, and fragments of pottery; and on a subsequent occasion he found a small stone chair. He left these mounds without suspecting that he had been treading above the palaces of the ancient a.s.syrian monarchs--that he had been over ancient Nineveh. But the ground was too fruitful in remote traditions to remain altogether unexplored in this century. The lands watered by the Tigris and the Euphrates, where the early Asiatic colonies of Scripture were founded, and where Nimrod, the grandson of Ham, flourished and founded Babel, and whence, according to Scripture, a.s.shur went forth to build Nineveh, are interesting ground. Of these great a.s.syrian towns it was natural to seek some ruins. Of all these cities, however, founded so far back before authentic history begins, only Nineveh, which flourished many centuries later, and of which we have always had more authentic histories than those of any other a.s.syrian city, attained to a comparatively modern prosperity and renown. The records of this magnificent city, from which historians have derived their information, describe its walls as reaching no less than two hundred feet in height, and broad enough to be a chariot-way. These walls were sixty miles in circ.u.mference, and guarded by fifteen hundred towers; and in the eighth century before the Christian era the city is estimated to have included a population of more than half a million souls. But many centuries before this, Nineveh was a wonderful city, of which the great monarch Ninus was king, and of which his celebrated wife, Semiramis, was afterwards queen. Ninus is the reputed founder of the a.s.syrian empire, and to him the magnificence of the capital is chiefly attributed. He is the Sesostris of a.s.syrian history, and is supposed to have flourished about twelve centuries before our era. The names of many a.s.syrian monarchs occur in the Sacred Writings: Sennacherib, who, seven centuries before our era, besieged Jerusalem and invaded Judea; and Shalmanasaar, who carried away the ten tribes of Israel. Later, the sovereignty of the a.s.syrian nation was transferred to Babylon by Nebuchadonosor; and afterwards the Medes and Babylonians laid the magnificent Nineveh in ruins, over which, many centuries afterwards, Herodotus wandered wonderingly, and endeavoured to glean from the pitiful wreck an idea of the bygone glory. The centre of the ancient a.s.syrian empire was the present Turkish province of Mosul; and hereabouts the researches of travellers have therefore been concentrated. Opposite Mosul, the capital of the province, are the two mounds which Mr. Rich hastily explored in 1820. These mounds have long formed the subject of animated controversies; but it was not before the year 1842 that any serious attempt was made to penetrate beneath the gra.s.s that covered them. In this year M. Botta, the French consul at Mosul, made some insignificant opening, but without discovering any remarkable remains; and rumours having reached him from Khorsabad, a few miles off, of some remains there, he caused some vigorous excavations to be made there, and, aided by his government, contrived to lodge an excellent collection of a.s.syrian sculptures in the Louvre. About this time Mr. Layard was travelling through the Turkish Asiatic provinces; and in the course of his wanderings paid considerable attention to the mounds situated at Nimroud and near Mosul. Convinced that under these hillocks lay precious relics of antiquity, he procured an official letter to the Pasha of Mosul, and in 1845 repaired to Nimroud, and hired Arabs to make excavations in the mounds there. Even the first day's search disclosed valuable slabs ornamented with bas-reliefs and inscriptions in the cuneiform character, of the remotest antiquity, dating so far back as nineteen centuries before our era, and conjectured to be part of the ruins of the chief palace of Nimroud, destroyed about twelve centuries before our era. If so, this point was the original centre of the great city of Nineveh--that part said to have been built by a.s.shur; while the surrounding mounds of Mosul, Khorsabad, and Kouyunjik, cover ruins of a later date. Of Mr. Layard's discoveries in a.s.syria, that room, which the visitor should now enter (called the NIMROUD ROOM), is full. The room, as the visitor will at once perceive, is divided into eleven compartments--the first being that to the left on entering. Here he will begin his inspection of

ANCIENT a.s.sYRIAN SCULPTURE.

The first slabs to which the visitor will direct his attention in the compartment (1), are from the north-west edifice, excavated from the Nimroud Mound, which Mr. Layard conjectures to be the most ancient of all the a.s.syrian ruins, dating, as we have stated, so far back as nineteen centuries before our era. On one slab the visitor will notice two standing draped figures, divided by the sacred tree, or tree of life, generally wors.h.i.+pped in the East, and adhered to in the religious systems of the Persians, here more like trellice-work than a tree, holding chaplets in their hands; on two other slabs figures with the sacred tree; and on a fourth we recognise the symbol of royalty among the ancient nations of Asia Minor, the umbrella borne by an eunuch over a monarch, who is represented returning from the chase, to the airs played by two musicians. Five figures are respectfully meeting him, and a dead animal lies at his feet. These specimens of the state of art in Asia, twenty-seven centuries ago, may well excite the curiosity of all cla.s.ses of spectators. Proceeding to the second compartment, the visitor will find eight more slabs, the first of which from the north-west edifice, represents a battle-piece. Here warriors are discharging their arrows, the king with the winged symbol of divinity in a circle above him is proceeding at full gallop, and a dead figure lies near him pierced with arrows. This scene is continued on the second slab, where there are two chariots, each containing two figures, and one decorated with the ferouher, or divine symbol. A siege is represented upon the third slab. Here the besiegers are applying the battering ram; figures are falling from the walls, while from the three tiers of battlements the besieged are vigorously discharging arrows. The visitor will notice the figures of two bow-men on the fourth slab, before a lake, with part of a tower in the distance, and the next three slabs have representations of the fall of the city, picturesquely indicated. The deserted battering rams stand near the walls; female prisoners are leaving the town, drawn by three oxen; eunuchs are driving away the cattle of the vanquished, and conducting prisoners with their hands bound.

The third compartment is occupied with slabs, the sculptured subjects of which closely resemble those just described, except that marked 7, where the king, in his chariot, is hunting the lion. He has had some success, as one royal beast lies dead under his horse's feet, and another is pierced by four arrows.

The fourth compartment contains some interesting slabs. The first two represent one continuous subject. First, the visitor will notice the figure of an a.s.syrian monarch, with his chariots and attendants behind him, holding up arrows in token of peace to an advancing group, the first figure of which is addressing the king, while on one side a eunuch is introducing four captives. The two following slabs present ill.u.s.trations of the crossing of a river. A boat, in which the royal chariot containing the king is deposited, is being dragged by two men ahead, while others are rowing, and behind follow horses and smaller boats. In their delineations of battles, the a.s.syrians were sagacious, since they vividly pourtrayed the horrors of war, by carving dead figures in the back ground, with birds preying upon them, even before the fray is over. Of this kind of vivid representation the visitor has a specimen on the next slab; where, while warriors are discharging their arrows, a dead soldier is being devoured by a bird in the back-ground, while another, as a pleasant suggestion of the impending fate of the survivors, hovers above their heads. The pa.s.sage of troops over mountainous country, or through jungle, is the subject ill.u.s.trated in the two following slabs (6,7); these are from Khorsabad, and include an inscription with the name of the monarch of that locality. Two slingers appear on the eighth slab, with archers attacking. On the next slab (9) enemies are represented in full flight, with a chariot containing two figures in hot pursuit: and on the last slab in this compartment, a city, with four battlemented towers is represented, with women standing between the towers, and chariots outside the walls.

Some curious fragments of large figures are included in the fifth compartment. First, there is a bearded head covered with a horned cap; also, the bust of a figure with the conical cap of the a.s.syrians: then the head of a figure, with traces of paint yet upon it, crowned with a tiara of rosettes. Here also is a fragment representing a king attended by a strange symbolical winged figure holding the popular fir-cone in his right hand, and in his left a basket, of which the visitor will remark a perfect specimen presently. The examination of these fragments will conduct the visitor to the end of the room, and before turning to examine the contents of the opposite compartments, he should pause to notice an obelisk placed hereabouts, which was dug from the centre of the great mound at Nimroud. It is seven feet in height, and is inscribed elaborately in the cuneiform character. On its surface are also engraved representations of various animals bearing presents.

The visitor will now turn and proceed back towards the door, examining, by the way, the compartments on his left hand.

The first of these, or the sixth compartment, contains, in addition to the fragments of figures including the head and shoulders of a king, and the upper part of an eunuch, two slabs (1,2) upon which is represented that fruitful subject of the a.s.syrian sculptor's chisel, the siege of a castle. The castle, which is represented in the middle of the battle-piece, and at the water's edge, is attacked by soldiers on all sides. The vigour of the a.s.sailants is well described. On the left the king directs the attack, with weeping women behind him; the walls are being scaled by ladders; the besieged are hurling stones from the ramparts, and casting fire upon a tower and ram, while the a.s.sailants are quenching the flames with water, and two figures are quietly picking holes in the walls in another direction. Hereabouts the visitor should notice, placed against the window, a pastoral subject--a man driving cattle. Upon the next slab, a war chariot in full speed, pa.s.sing over a dead lion, is represented; and on the sixth and last slab of the compartment is another battlepiece. Here the besieged castle is surrounded by water; one of the besieged is holding arrows aloft in token of peace, while figures, on inflated skins, swim towards the walls, and soldiers from the banks are aiming arrows at them.

The fragments in the seventh compartment may be easily understood from the descriptions of previous slabs.

The eighth compartment contains some remains which demand particular notice. The first slab introduces us to a knowledge of the interiors of a.s.syrian dwellings. Here the interior of a building is represented divided into four distinct compartments, and exhibiting various people at their several household duties. We have even a glimpse at an a.s.syrian groom, who, in an adjoining building, is cleaning a horse.

Prisoners are introduced even here, in this domestic scene, conducted by a warrior to an eunuch; and in the distance are soldiers, with lions' skins, dancing to the vibrations of a guitar. The second slab is a continuation of the first. Here men are mounted in war chariots, while others holding the heads of their enemies in their hands are on foot: and a bird, grasping in its claws a human head, soars above.

That slab marked 3, and placed against the window hereabouts, was extracted from the centre of the great mound of Nimroud. Here camels, preceded by a woman, are pourtrayed. The slab marked 5 bears the representation of an a.s.syrian divinity, with four wings, the head surmounted by the conical cap with two horns, and the left hand holding a circlet of beads. A winged figure occurs also on the sixth slab of this compartment, holding a bearded ear of corn in one hand, and a goat in the other. The slabs of the ninth compartment have also representations of winged figures. The fourth, with the eagle head, and holding a fir-cone and a basket. This figure is thus described by Mr. Layard: "A human body, clothed in robes similar to those of the winged men already described, was surmounted by the head of an eagle or of a vulture. The curved beak, of considerable length, was half open, and displayed a narrow-pointed tongue, on which were still the remains of red paint. On the shoulders fell the usual curled and bushy hair of the a.s.syrian images, and a comb of feathers rose on the top of the head. Two wings sprang from the back, and in either hand was the square vessel and fir-cone. In a kind of girdle were three daggers, the handle of one being in the form of the head of a bull. They may have been of precious metal, but more probably of copper, inlaid with ivory or enamel, as a few days before a copper dagger-handle, precisely similar in form to one of those carried by this figure, hollowed to receive an ornament of some such material, had been discovered in the S.W. ruins, and is now preserved in the British Museum. This effigy, which probably typified by its mythic form the union of certain divine attributes, may perhaps be identified with the G.o.d Nisroch, in whose temple Sennacherib was slain by his sons after his return from his unsuccessful expedition against Jerusalem; the word Nisr signifying, in all Semitic languages, 'an eagle.'"

The slabs arranged in the tenth compartment are interesting. On the first, two hors.e.m.e.n, whose peaked helmets suggest that they are a.s.syrians, are charging another horseman with their spears. Behind is a bird carrying off the entrails of the killed. The second slab, covered with an inscription, formed part of the northwest palace.

Winged figures are traceable on other slabs in this compartment; and in the centre the visitor should remark the only a.s.syrian statue yet discovered. It is a seated figure, headless. Between the tenth and eleventh compartments are placed some painted bricks, used in adorning the interior of a.s.syrian edifices. The eleventh and last compartment contains two slabs, on the first of which is a monarch holding two arrows in token of peace. Having fully examined these objects, the visitor has done with the Nimroud room. Of the romantic stories connected with the researches for the invaluable fragments it contains, we should be glad to give the reader a faint sketch. How Mr.

Layard struggled against all kinds of difficulties; slept in hovels not sheltered from the rain; used his table as his roof by night; rode backwards and forwards from Nimroud to Mosul to expostulate with the vexatious interferences of a tyrannical old pasha; cheered the labours of his superst.i.tious workmen; celebrated the discovery of certain remains with substantial feastings and music: made peace with a wandering Arab who threatened to rob him: these, and a thousand other adventures, recorded in his narrative of his discoveries, give an additional zest to the curiosity with which visitors enter this Nimroud room.

And now the visitor may make his way back to the great entrance-hall of the Museum, where his third visit should close. In the hall are deposited four colossal specimens of sculpture from Nimroud. The first of these, to which the visitor should direct his attention, is a colossal figure of a winged human-headed bull, found by Mr. Layard at the portal of a door at Nimroud. Of the discovery of this marvellous specimen of ancient a.s.syrian art, Mr. Layard gives a graphic account:--"I was returning to the mound, when I saw two Arabs urging their mares to the top of their speed. On approaching me, they stopped. 'Hasten, O Bey!' exclaimed one of them, 'hasten to the diggers; for they have found Nimrod himself. Wallah! it is wonderful, but it is true! we have seen him with our eyes. There is no G.o.d but G.o.d!' and both joining in this pious exclamation, they galloped off, without further words, in the direction of their tents. On reaching the ruins I descended into the new trench, and found the workmen, who had already seen me as I approached, standing near a heap of baskets and cloaks. Whilst Awad advanced and asked for a present to celebrate the occasion, the Arabs withdrew the screen they had hastily constructed, and disclosed an enormous human head, sculptured in full out of the alabaster of the country. They had uncovered the upper part of a figure, the remainder of which was still buried in the earth. I saw at once that the head must belong to a winged lion or bull, similar to those of Khorsabad and Persepolis. It was in admirable preservation. The expression was calm, yet majestic; and the outline of the features showed a freedom and knowledge of art scarcely to be looked for in works of so remote a period. I was not surprised that the Arabs had been amazed and terrified at this apparition. It required no stretch of imagination to conjure up the most strange fancies. This gigantic head, blanched with age, thus rising from the bowels of the earth, might well have belonged to one of those fearful beings which are pictured in the traditions of the country as appearing to mortals, slowly ascending from the regions below. One of the workmen, on catching the first glimpse of the monster, had thrown down his basket, and had run off towards Mosul as fast as his legs could carry him." The marvellous fidelity and power with which this, and the colossal human-headed bull are executed, must astonish the most uninstructed observer. For an account of the marvellous labour at the cost of which these colossal a.s.syrian works were conveyed from Asia Minor to the British Museum, we must refer the reader to Mr.

Layard's excellent condensed account of his researches, published by Mr. Murray. And with the contemplation of these mysterious monuments of the past, the visitor should close his third visit to the national Museum.

He may usefully recapitulate the points of his present visit. He has been travelling for hours amongst the wrecks of the remote past. Over vast tracts of land, where now the Turk lazily dreams away the hours, or moves only to destroy the remains of the ancient civilisation of his Asiatic provinces. Throughout this, his third visit, the visitor has been exploring the revelations of the past, written upon the face of Turkish provinces. The bigotry with which the explorers of Thebes, Nimroud, and Xanthus had to contend, is written in their histories of their labours. How when the human-headed bull was disclosed by the pick-axes of the Chaldaeans, the Arabs scampered off, and how all the natives thought that Nimroud himself--the mighty hunter--was rising grimly from the earth, are points in the discovery of this treasure which all should read. The vigour with which English and French explorers have possessed themselves of the treasures of ancient Egypt, the master-pieces from the Parthenon, the strange stone revelations of Lycia, and the majestic colossi of ancient a.s.syria, contrasts forcibly with the indolence of the Turk, who sat at hand to wonder at the enthusiasm of his Christian visitors. No more pitiful exhibition of a national character could be furnished by any pa.s.sage in the history of the world than that which describes the ignorant and superst.i.tious Turk grinding the sculpture of the Parthenon into mortar for his dwelling house. Truly, in all respects, is this a matter to be pondered by the general visitor, as he retreats from the national Museum for the third time. He has not pa.s.sed an idle day here, wandering amid sphinxes, and tombs, and temples, and ancient G.o.ds.

From the confusion he may gather something that shall not be altogether a useless subject for reflection as he wanders homewards.

He may link himself with the remote past, recognise the elements of modern society in these stone revelations of the remote history of the world, feel the vibration of the great human heart coming to him even from the bowels of Egypt's pyramids. There he has their family histories written on their tombstones by weeping relatives; their religion, with all its debasing idolatry, strong in death, exhibiting pleasantly the firmness of their faith; splendid sarcophagi tardily wrought from ma.s.sive rock, yet perseveringly accomplished in the strong conviction that the dead would shake off the mummy bandages, discharge the natron from their pores, reclaim their scattered intestines, pa.s.s the brain back through the nose into the skull, and once more feel quickening blood in the veins. Proudly men of the pa.s.sing century look back upon all this wors.h.i.+p of animals, upon the Egyptian Anubis, and the intestine genii with their animal heads; but even here, in this field of speculation, where the historian's hand wanders unsteadily about his page, and all wears a mythical air, pulses of human emotion are felt that a.s.sure us of the remote past.

Strange that the chief chapters of ancient Egypt's history should have been written for moderns by her undertakers!

END OF THIRD VISIT.

VISIT THE FOURTH.

The visitor will now enter the museum to complete his inspection of its contents. His way lies once more to the west on entering the great hall, into the first Sculpture Gallery, or that which he will recognise as leading into the great central saloon. Here, as he pauses on the threshold of a n.o.ble room filled with splendid specimens of Greek art, he may recur to the historical points which these works ill.u.s.trate. Throughout this, his last visit, he will be occupied with the examination of the works of the ancient Greeks. These works, as he will notice, are of various degrees of excellence. Already has he examined the rude labours of the Greek sculptors of Xanthus; and to-day his journey will be amid those more modern and perfect labours, performed when the talent of the Greeks was chiefly concentrated upon European ground. Although these glories of remote antiquity are here mostly in an admirable state of preservation, historians are generally lost in contradictions when they attempt to point to any particular piece of statuary as the labour of any known sculptor. The sculptor of the Venus de Medici is not known; and the Apollo Belvedere is a masterpiece, the author of which lies shrouded in the depths of the past. Rude and harsh were the early performances of the Greeks. We have histories of Greek sculptors who flourished many hundred years before our era; and of these the mythical Daedalus is the oldest and most renowned. This sculptor is reported to have flourished fourteen centuries before the Christian era. He is said to have fas.h.i.+oned colossal wooden statues; and Pausanias mentions his statue of Hercules in the possession of the Thebans, and his wooden Venus in the possession of the Delians. His Hercules, however, appears to have been considered his masterpiece; and Flaxman, commenting upon the antiquity of the figures of Hercules found on some coins, seems to think that we may not unreasonably conjecture that these are copies from the masterpiece of Daedalus. Other sculptors of the same name, appear to have flourished in the Achaic period of Grecian history. Indeed it is shrewdly conjectured that Daedalus derived his name from wooden statues called Daedala; and that amongst the ancient Greeks, Daedalus meant nothing more than one skilled in making Daedala. The earliest sculptures of the Greeks were fas.h.i.+oned of materials easily worked, as plaster, clay, and wood. Later they worked ivory, and began to understand the value of metals in statuary; and about five centuries before the Christian era, marble was used by sculptors for detached figures. In the infancy of Greek art, when sculptors were gradually acquiring the skill to fas.h.i.+on their creations out of the most durable material, many combinations of wood, stone, and metal were used, which would sadly shock the modern sculptor's eye;--wooden figures burnished with gold, and with painted vermilion faces, were fas.h.i.+oned in the age of Phidias; and it is believed by some, that this immortal sculptor helped to produce a statue of Jupiter, the face of which was of ivory and gold, and the body of gypsum and clay. Phidias may be fairly acknowledged as the first great Greek sculptor, of whose career and whose works we have indisputable accounts. He founded, and represents all the excellencies of the highest school of Greek art. The sculptors who came after him, as Lysippus the favourite of the great Alexander, paid greater regard to graces of detail and to finish; but of those sublime effects, those forms of G.o.ds in human shape which really impress the modern spectator with their almost superhuman beauty, Phidias was the creator. The sculptures known to the public as the Townley collection, are sculptures generally of a more modern date than those in the Elgin and Phigaleian Saloons. The collection has undoubtedly many specimens of the rudest eras of Greek art: but its most striking groups, to the general visitor, will be undoubtedly those finished statues and compositions which represent the ages when Greece was a great European power, and that subsequent period when the Greek sculptors plied their chisels under the patronage of Roman conquerors. In this room the visitor will once more remark, how large a proportion of these priceless relics have been gleaned from ancient sepulchres. Even as he enters the room, he may perceive on the right, the front of a tomb from Athens, carved in high relief; and on the left, the front of another tomb, also sculptured, from Delos.

The room is divided into compartments which the visitor should examine in their regular order of rotation. He will begin therefore, of course with the

FIRST DIVISION.

Before the first pilaster let the visitor notice at once a small seated statue of Cybele or Fortune, from Athens, presented to the nation by J.S. Gaskoin, Esq. Other remarkable objects to be examined before the visitor fixes his attention upon the contents of the case deposited here, are a bust of Demosthenes; a sepulchral altar or cippus, ornamented with sphinxes, etc.; and a sepulchral stele, inscribed with the name of the son of Artemidorus, who is reclining upon a couch, and crowning himself. Over the case are deposited the end of a sarcophagus ornamented with a Bacchus reclining on a satyr; a bust of Julius Caesar; a sepulchral cippus; and a Greek stele. On the case are a head found near Rome, probably of Mercury: and the bust of a Muse crowned with a laurel wreath.

Having examined these objects, the visitor should occupy himself with the contents of the case. Here are some beautiful specimens of Greek art--some mere fragments, others in a wonderful state of preservation.

Here are one of those funeral masks anciently used to cover the face of a corpse; the votive mask of a bearded satyr; a votive patera with bas-reliefs representing Silenus and a satyr, another with the head of a bearded Bacchus, and a panther; various heads of Hercules; a Venus attended by two Cupids; a bust of Vitellius; a head of Vulcan; a bust of Caracalla; a head of Juno; a head of the daughter of t.i.tus, Julia; a mutilated figure, about the neck of which a scarabaeus is suspended; the torso of a satyr; a variety of fragments, here an arm holding a b.u.t.terfly--there two lions' paws--there a gladiator's foot--there the fragment of a serpent. Having noticed these sc.r.a.ps of ancient art, the visitor may direct his attention to the lower shelf, where he will observe some beautiful busts. These include one supposed to be of Sappho; a Minerva with a Corinthian helmet found at Rome; Bacchus; Apollo; a Parian marble bust of Diana from Rome; a queenly Juno wearing the splendone; terminal busts, joined back to back, of Hercules and Omphale. The upper shelf now remains for inspection. Here are three sepulchral tablets, and the fronts of two sarcophagi. The tablet from Crete, within a wreath, contains an inscription descriptive of honour conferred by the inhabitants of Crete upon an individual named Alexander, the gift to him being a golden crown.

Having noticed the gay Cupids enacting Baccha.n.a.lians upon the first front of a sarcophagus, the visitor should pa.s.s on at once to the

SECOND DIVISION.

Here, in front of the pilaster, the visitor should remark a curious square altar, with Silva.n.u.s, to whom the altar is dedicated by the farm servant of Caius Coelius Heliodorus, Callistus; and a trophy discovered on the plains of Marathon.